Statement from the Coalition for Justice in Palestine (CJP) – Chicago
(English translation)

– October 9, 2015

As the most heinous daily attacks and crimes by the Israeli occupation forces and settler hordes escalate against the unarmed Palestinian people, the international community of states is conspicuously silent, and Israel again has unequivocal U.S. support. Palestinians are alone defending their people with bare chests against Israeli aggression, siege, settlement, and violations of our sacred Christian and Muslim holy sites.

The Coalition for Justice in Palestine (CJP)-Chicago, consisting of the main Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim institutions organizing for Palestinian rights in the Chicagoland area, salutes the uprising in the homeland and asserts to the Palestinian people, to its leadership, and to all the National and Islamic forces struggling in historic Palestine, in the Diaspora, and in the refugee camps, that we stand with the Intifada as a legitimate, natural right of the Palestinian people to resist illegal occupation by any means necessary, enshrined under the United Nations and international laws.

As we are an integral part of the Palestinian nation, sharing the same demands and goals, including freedom, Right of Return, self-determination, and the establishment of an independent Palestine, we insist that all Palestinian factions start building a united national resistance front with a structure of joint operations and a unified political reference point.

We also call on the leaderships of all Palestinian organizations to develop and formulate a new strategy to end the brutal, U.S. imperialist-supported occupation, and achieve all the legitimate, natural rights of our people.

We insist that the Palestinian leadership adopt all of these previously approved policies from the Palestinian Central Council:

1. We call on all political factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), along with the Islamic liberation movements, to end the political division that has damaged the Palestinian cause at every level. This unity will strengthen our people and lead to a unified Palestinian body that will be able to restore the spirit of the Palestinian struggle against the iron grip imposed by the right-wing, racist Israeli government of Netanyahu.

2. We demand that the Palestinian National Authority (PA) immediately end “security coordination” with Israeli and U.S. intelligence agencies, which provides protection only to the Israeli occupation and its illegal settlers, and leaves the Palestinians at the mercy of Zionist aggression and its war machine.

3. We demand that the Palestinian leadership declare the immediate cessation of the Oslo Accords, and all its political, security, and economic commitments.

4. We call upon the Palestinian leadership to adopt a strategy based on our people’s right to resist the occupation by any means necessary, combined with tools that are enshrined by the United Nations and relevant international laws. It is the right time to drag Israel’s war criminals to the International Criminal Court and the International War Crimes Tribunal—to reveal the real face of Israeli apartheid and to hold them accountable for crimes against humanity in Palestine.

The CJP underscores that long-term security and stability in the region can only be achieved by ending the Israeli military occupation and removing its settlers, as initial steps leading to self-determination, the Right of Return for refugees to the homes and lands from which they were exiled in 1947-48 and again in 1967, and the establishment of an independent Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.

We again emphasize that the practical response to this Israeli barbarism is to unify our people within all the Palestinian political factions, which will strengthen our internal front as we continue the struggle for our national rights.

We pay tribute to all the freedom fighters and political prisoners in Israeli jails, and immortalize those who were killed, and are being killed, defending our land and our national and religious rights in the face of racist, Zionist Israel.

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The leading organizational members of the Coalition for Justice in Palestine (CJP)-Chicago, and the signatories of this statement, include American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Chicago Islamic Center, Palestinian American Community Center, Palestinian American Council (PAC), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)-Chicago, and the United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN).